Even though I liked Baldur's Gate better than Icewind Dale, there is one thing that I liked more about IWD: the forums here. Back in the days when Ironworks was very busy, this subforum was my favourite one; I loved all the discussions here, especially about the rules and game mechanics. Maybe it's due to the fact that you create your own party that discussions about different classes and races, party composition... etc was more lively here.

I've actually been toying with creating just such a party for years ever since I wrote that. Now that I'll have some free time with just my laptop, away from my gaming computer, I might try just that, since the original IWD would run fine on my laptop.

Also, I realized that although I played my game on Normal difficulty initially, by the time I was playing TotL, all my games were on highest difficulty (and one on HoF). I've never played a full game of IWD+HoW+TotL on Normal. So this will be a chance to finally do it.

So, out of the many active members on IW's Icewind Dale forums, I picked 4, who together with myself and NobleNick himself will form my party:

I know these forums seem deserted now, but if you have any input or comments on any of the following, I'd gladly hear them:

PARTY COMPOSITION

I usually play cleric/druid heavy parties, due to their more useful crowd control spells, spell availability without need of writing from scrolls, and healing. Unfortunately, it also meant that my weapon selection was limited, and I often left some good weapons behind, because I had no one to use them. This time, for the sake of change I'm going with two mages. Both specialists so between the two of them they get all spells. One will be casting offensive spells from behind, while another will be more of a battlemage fighting at the front lines.

What do you think of the party composition? The other alternatives I considered were:

Thief -> Fighter (instead of Fighter -> Thief). I really liked this. I'd be able to better develop his fighting skills. On the other hand endlessly developing a thief is not needed, since all he really needs is Pick Locks and Disarm Traps, the other two skills are not so necessary, and can be covered by bard and potions of invisibility. So getting locks and traps to 80% (there is also Knock spell and simply disarming traps using summons or just soaking the damage), should be enough, allowing me to focus on Fighter class instead.
The major problem with this choice, and the one I mentioned previously too, however would be that my starting party would not be 5 human fighters, but instead 4 fighters and one thief. Also, I would have to consider at what location I would be without my thieving skills. They are really needed in the Severed Hand or Dragon's Eye dungeons.

I think I'll stick with the 5 planned above.

WHEN TO DUAL CLASS

At normal difficulty, I can expect to end up with 2.5M XP per character. Also, I'd like them to play with both class abilities for a good amount of the duration of the game.

The good levels to dual up are 3 (weapon prof.), 6 (prof.), 7 (ApR), 9 (prof.). Higher than that means they won't regain their primary class early enough. Other levels give no real bonuses, other than the better HP. I'll also need to ensure they don't level up together so as not to have a level 1 party mid game.

So I'm thinking:
F->D : 3. Dual early to get those healing spells and druid spells.
F->C : 6 or 7. I'll have healing from Druid so I can afford to dual later. Also, druid's offensive spells are more useful here.
F->T : 3. Need those thief skills in dungeons.
F->M (offensive caster): 6 or 7. Mages don't get good scrolls till later in the game, I can afford to dual later.
F->M (battlemage): 9. Get as many weapon proficiencies as possible for the better tank.

Thoughts on these? Can anyone tell me at which stage of the game I can expect the duals and the regaining of fighter class to happen with these numbers?

*****

Any other thoughts? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Also, if any of the 5 guys read this by any chance, let me know how you want me to customize (portrait, colours, voice-set) your character.

--------------------What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!

I would just dual everyone at 3rd level so they can regain their original class more quickly. Other than that, enjoy the party!

Azred! Good to see you. Thanks.

All at 3 isn't a bad idea, but this will drop them all to level 1 at the same time while in Vale of Shadows. Also, the extra weapon profs for mages should be useful in the long run. Also: more interesting.